Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Sara Moulton, left, is the proud mama of BLT and Egg pie. Below, Daisy Martinez warming up the crowd before she serves up a double-whammy. Photos courtesy of New York Botanical Garden.

EVERYTIME I open the vegetable bin in my refrigerator and clap my eyes on the red pepper, green pepper, carrots and celery, I immediately think roasted vegetables. Then I remember that it’s 90-something degrees outside and not the best day to turn on the oven.

Perhaps, I will have an opp next week when the temps drop to the mid-80s. For now, though, I will want to find something else to eat. One option is to root around the New York Botanical Garden’s, “The Edible Garden.” (http://vevlynspen.blogspot.com/2010/06/peesto.html).

Among the attractions of this four-month-long food exhibition is a variety of chefs with nutrition, delicious dishes – many of them designed to beat the heat. And many of them are online.

Last month, Michele DiPietro’s (Whole Foods) Zucchini Pesto Bruschetta dazzled the tastebuds of Yours Truly and those of other journalists who attended a press preview. (http://www.nybg.org/images/edible_garden/2010/recipes/di_pietro_zucchini.pdf)

During his turn in the kitchen Michael Anthony (Gramercy Tavern) did “surf and earth” with Calamari and Carrot Salad. (http://www.nybg.org/images/edible_garden/2010/recipes/michael_calamari.pdf)

Daisy Martinez (“Viva Daisy!”) has produced a duo of Barbecued Short Ribs of Beef and Sweet Corn, Fava Bean and Fennel Salad. (http://www.nybg.org/images/edible_garden/2010/recipes/daisy_fennel.pdf)

With brunch on the brain, Sara Moulton got down to business and came up with BLT and Egg Pie. (http://www.nybg.org/images/edible_garden/2010/recipes/sara_blt.pdf)

Today – as is the case each Wednesday during “The Edible Garden” – the Greenmarket is open for business. The market is not just the venue of fresh vegetables. Also on the day's menu is the 12:30 p.m. "Cooking for Your Health" demo. Jennifer Josef is making gazpacho and tomato bruschetta.

On Thursday, what's "Cooking for the Season" (2 p.m.) is apricot three ways from the recipe files of Kimberly Rubin. It’s summertime and the grillin' is easy on Whole Foods Market® Fridays (2 p.m.). On the grill is vegetable gazpacho and bread.

Visit www.nybg.org for complete information about "The Edible Garden," including how to purchase tickets.

During Restaurant Week, What Will D. Do?Darcel is an intrepid traveler and one-eye diner's guide during NYC Restaurant Week Summer 2010.

“ON the 12th day of Restaurant Week my true love sent to me: 12 ex-tra pouuunds,” Darcel writes of his experience at 10 Downing Food & Wine. At Cipriani Wall Street, he has “two too many and the only one not in a suit and tie.”

“Uh-oh,” is all he writes at another joint. And he’s not embarrassed to confess “Food envy.”

Who is this character? As brand ambassador – a first – for NYC Restaurant Week Summer 2010, Himself has the crumby job of dining at participating eateries and reporting his finding here & here (nycgo.com/restaurantweek & darceldisappoints.blogspot.com).

NYC & Company, the outfit behind restaurant week, is really pressing Darcel into service during this summer session, which like unemployment benefits, has been extended (but only through 6 September). The eye one adventurer will appear on media panels in bus shelters throughout the five boroughs; he stars in a 30-second video that will show on monitors in cabs; he’s posed for buttons and heat-waving paper fans to be disseminated to diners who make their way over to the official NYC Information Center in Midtown ... I smell a reality show.

Breslin Bar & Dining Room, db Bistro Moderne and Zengo are amongst the more than 170 restaurants who voted for the extension program, and we know the drill: $24.07 three-course prix-fixe lunches and $35 three-course prix-fixe dinners (excluding Saturdays, beverage, tax and gratuity).

Learn more about NYC Restaurant Week Summer 2010, the extension, at http://www.nycgo.com/restaurantweek/.